Yassamin Ansari

Democrat · U.S. House, Arizona District 3

Ansari said in July 2026 that she would vote to block offensive military assistance to the government of Israel. She cosponsors a bill to limit weapons transfers to that government. In her 2024 campaign she backed continued U.S. military aid to that government without additional conditions.

Yassamin Ansari is finishing her first term in the U.S. House. Her district covers parts of Phoenix, including south Phoenix, Laveen and Maryvale, and part of Glendale. She was a Phoenix city councilwoman and vice mayor before she won the seat in 2024, and she is the first Iranian American elected to public office in Arizona. She was the only candidate on the Democratic primary ballot on July 21, 2026 and is seeking a second term on November 3.

On the morning of a House vote in July 2026 she wrote that she would vote for an amendment to block offensive military assistance to the government of Israel, adding: “Not one more taxpayer dollar should fund war and destruction instead of lowering costs for Americans.” She wrote that about 98.5 percent of the money is offensive military financing and that Congress “must use our leverage to advance a just and durable peace for everyone in the region.” The House turned the amendment down. Two months earlier she had signed on to the Block the Bombs Act, a bill to limit transfers of U.S. defense articles and services to the government of Israel, which the office of its author describes as legislation that would withhold the transfer of offensive weapons and require compliance with U.S. and international law.

That is a different answer from the one she gave voters in 2024. Reporting on the closing day of her primary, Jewish Insider, a Washington outlet covering Jewish political life, wrote that in a policy paper her campaign circulated she had endorsed continued military aid to the government of Israel without additional conditions. In an interview with the same outlet in February 2024 she would not repeat that pledge on the record, saying: “When it comes to military aid or assistance to any country, I don’t think we should necessarily be singling out Israel.” She added that where the United States provides assistance there must be strong accountability, and that the result has to abide by international law. Asked in July 2026 about supporters who felt misled, she said: “I’m sorry that some people may feel misled, but that’s not how I see it at all,” and said the situation on the ground had changed dramatically.

On American money for Palestinians she has said less, and what she has said is about humanitarian aid rather than a program or a figure. Marking two years since the October 7 attack, she said: “The bombing must stop and the war must end immediately. We must surge humanitarian aid for innocent Palestinians,” and in the same sentence called for the release of every hostage and a return to two states for two peoples. Her 2024 paper went further into the machinery, backing assistance through civil society and non-governmental channels and supporting United States funding for United Nations agencies serving Palestinians so long as it complied with the Taylor Force Act, the law that withholds aid to the Palestinian Authority while it pays the families of people convicted of attacks. That document carries no date, so it is set out on her research page rather than here.

She has also changed how she describes the war. In the same October 2025 statement she said the Netanyahu government “has conducted a gruesome war that has left tens of thousands dead and countless more starving,” and called that collective punishment, which she said had shocked the conscience of the world. In June 2026 she said for the first time that she believed the government of Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and in Lebanon, telling Jewish Insider of that decision: “I just don’t think we can continue to mince our words or deny what so many credible actors and institutions and doctors are saying.” She said in the same interview that she was sympathetic to Jewish colleagues and constituents who find the word hurtful, that she continues to condemn the October 7 attack, and that she believes Israelis deserve to live in peace and security and that a secure Palestinian state is needed.

She has said she will not take campaign support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which lobbies to sustain U.S. support for the government of Israel, or from Democratic Majority for Israel, whose political arm spends in Democratic primaries for candidates it considers supportive of that government and which backed her in 2024. Her reason, as she gave it: “I just don’t want anyone to think that any of my decisions are influenced by any organization.” She told Jewish Insider that she still talks with Democratic Majority for Israel and has a respectful relationship with it.

Her vote on a defense bill amendment touching Israeli missile defense programs, the letter she signed in January 2026 about annexation in the West Bank, her January 2025 statement on the Gaza ceasefire, and the Iran material that fills most of her public statements are on her research page.

Tracked votes: opposed sending U.S. weapons or funding to the government of Israel in 1 of 2 recorded votes.

Research

Our research started from a search run on 2026-09-07. Every page named below was opened and read on 2026-09-16 unless the entry says otherwise. Her congressional newsroom was read in full: all 193 items it lists, each one searched for this subject; 14 carry any mention of it and every one of those is on this page. Her campaign site was read through the file its own pages load, which returns the full text of its pages and posts. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. Her recorded House votes and the tracked funding totals are shown as badges on this card and are not restated here.

U.S. military aid and weapons to the government of Israel

U.S. aid to Palestinians

Characterization of the conflict

Israel-related rhetoric and lobbying

Safety and antisemitism (context, not an answer to what America sends)

What her campaign site and her own pages say

The race

Places that could not be read, so nothing is claimed from them

Not on the card, and why

Sources retrieved for this card (address; opened or could not open; date)

All Arizona candidates.

See the full record →

But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. Every claim on this page goes through at least two verification steps. Open the interactive card for votes, funding and contact details.